This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Vehicles including ships, aircraft and automobile vehicles have fluid tanks including fuel tanks that are often molded from a polymeric material which enables the fuel tank to be configured to suit the geometry of the vehicle frame and other components. Automobile fuel tank configurations commonly include non-geometric cavities, wings, and the like to maximize fuel volume in a limited space. During vehicle motion, a liquid fuel in the tank sloshes back and forth, creating waves. As each wave of fuel contacts a fuel tank end, side or cavity wall the wave energy creates high noise levels, which can reach approximately 100 decibels. This noise level can be sustained for 30 seconds or more until the waves dissipate. Multiple designs of internal tank baffles have been used to break up the fuel waves and therefore to reduce the noise levels.
Commonly known baffles for automobile vehicle fuel tanks provide a vertical wall which is normally positioned about midway in the fuel tank. Known baffles have through bores created in the vertical wall which each allow a portion of the fuel to move through the apertures, thereby changing the geometry of the sloshing waves in the fuel tank. Wave energy in common baffle designs is redirected, but not dissipated by flowing around the baffle, or through the baffle apertures. The energy of the waves is often redirected as smaller waves to other portions of the fuel tank where the tank geometry does not create as high a noise level when contacted by the redirected waves. Common baffle designs are therefore not effective at reducing total wave energy as a means to reduce noise.